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This research work has developed an integrated fuzzy Delphi and neutrosophic best–worst framework for selecting the sustailient (sustainable and resilient) supplier for an additive manufacturing (AM)-enabled industry.

An integrated fuzzy Delphi method (FDM) and neutrosophic best–worst method (N-BWM) approach is developed. 34 supplier evaluation criteria falling under 4 groups, that is, traditional, sustainable, resilient, and AM specific, are identified and validated using the FDM. Afterward, the weights of each criterion are measured by N-BWM. Later on, the performance evaluation is carried out to determine the best-suited supplier. Finally, sensitivity analysis is performed to know the stability and robustness of the proposed framework.

The outcome indicates the high performance of the suggested decision-making framework. The analysis reveals that supplier 4 (S4) is selected as the most appropriate for a given firm based on the FDM and N-BWM method.

The applicability of this framework is demonstrated through an industrial case of a 3D-printed trinket manufacturer. The proposed research helps AM decision-makers better understand resiliency, sustainability, and AM-related attributes. With this, the practitioners working in AM business can prioritize the supplier selection criteria.

This is the primitive study to undertake the most critical aspect of supplier selection for AM-enabled firms. Apart from this, an integrated FDM-N-BWM framework is a novel contribution to the literature on supplier selection.

The paper intends to comprehend the pattern of usage of FinTech services among bank customers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper also examines the factors influencing the adoption of FinTech services by using the constructs from the technology acceptance model (TAM) together with highlighting the issues faced in using FinTech services in Assam.

The research is empirical in nature. Data have been collected from 1,066 prime earners of the households having a bank account.

There has been an upsurge in the use of FinTech services in the area of study. Apart from government and private service employees, businessmen, self-employed professionals, many daily-wage earners and agriculturists have also experienced an increase in their frequency of usage of FinTech services thereby making technology-based financial services an indispensable tool in enhancing access, improving inclusivity in the times of crisis and aftermath. Government support, trust, perceived usefulness (PU), attitude and social influence have a positive influence on FinTech adoption; however, perceived risks impact respondents’ trust towards FinTech services thereby requiring necessary measures to evaluate organizations’ preparedness to deal with cyber threats.

The paper provides insight into the factors impacting the adoption of FinTech services to stimulate superior connectivity infrastructure, robust security measures and maintaining financial stability with adequate supervisory and monitoring regulations to enhance trust towards FinTech services during the crisis and aftermath.

Viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spywares have been effective for quite sometime in the domain of digital computers. These malicious software cause millions of dollars of loss in assets, revenue, opportunity, cleanup cost, and lost productivity. To stop virus attacks, organizations frame up different security policies. These policies work only within the limited domain of the organization’s network. However, the emergence of wireless technologies, and the seamless mobility features of the wireless devices from one network to the other have created a challenge to uphold the security policies of a particular network. Hence, in this digital society, while mobile devices roam in foreign networks, they get infected through viruses in the foreign network. Anti‐virus software is not so effective for novel viruses. There have been no reports of mobile‐phone viruses in the wild as yet. However, with the emergence of execution environments on mobile phones, it will be possible to write viruses and worms for mobile devices in cellular networks. We should be prepared to fight against viruses in the cellular networks. All the technologies available to fight against viruses are specific to virus signatures. We propose that this fight needs to be multilayered. In this paper the authors have proposed a novel philosophy in cellular network called Artificial Hygiene (AH), which is virus neutral and will work at the class level. With this process a device and the network will take the necessary steps to keep the digital environment safe.

This study intends to explore the impact of World Trade Organization (WTO) which came into existence from January 1, 1995, on the export share of developing counties in the world exports of all goods together in US$, that is, in global merchandise trade. This study endogenously determines the structural break in changing export share of developing countries and how are they related to the major changes in the multilateral trading systems of international trade, in particular, the introduction of the WTO by following a multiple breakpoint analysis due to Bai–­Perron. In this context, it would be worthwhile to note that the shift toward more export-oriented strategies by a large number of developing countries has accelerated the growth of LDC exports. This study also compares the changing share of merchandise exports and trade in commercial ­services for developing countries and the LDCs in the Post-WTO regime. The ­authors follow a univariate time-series exploratory analysis to understand the trend in world export shares of all goods and commercial services for different regions of the developing world and demonstrate the potential of these regions in the expansion of trade. The study, while evaluating the impact of WTO in changing export share in terms of structural change analysis, enables us to understand the role tariff cut in the developed countries on the imports from developing countries. This study also observes increasing inequality in terms of export share among different regions of the developing world.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors affecting the financial sustainability of the Indian Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) post-Andhra Pradesh (AP) crisis

Regression analysis is used to test the significance of the independent variables on the variable of interest, i.e. the operational self-sustainability. Three-stage regression analysis, i.e. Partial F-test, residual analysis and Box–Cox-type transformations is applied to see the impact of the variables on financial sustainability of the Indian MFIs. The study is based on the data of the Indian MFIs during three fiscal years from 2010-2011 to 2012-2012 reported in the Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX).

The authors’ results indicate that in 2010-2011, the linear regression model seems to be good fit to the data, whereas in 2011-2012 and 2012-2013, the appropriateness of the linear regression models seems questionable (the error distribution seems to be skewed). It is observed that square root of the dependent variable exhibits adequate fit for 2011 and 2012. Therefore, a substantial change in the model for estimating sustainability of Indian MFIs is observed in the post-AP crisis era. It is observed that portfolio quality and capital management are important determinants for the financial sustainability of the MFIs.

This study identifies the factors affecting the sustainability of the Indian MFIs, especially after the reforms following the AP crisis in India. The study suggests that from 2012-2013, the factors such as write-off ratio, capital-to-asset ratio, ratio of financial revenue to assets and provision for loan impairment-to-asset ratio are the main factors which have significant impact on the operational self-sufficiency (OSS) of Indian MFIs. This indicates that the quality of portfolio must be improved to reduce the vulnerability of the Indian MFIs.

After the AP crisis, the performance of Indian MFIs is stabilized to a greater extent. The various performance indicators are improving.

The paper provides a detailed comparative analysis of the factors effecting financial sustainability of the Indian MFIs, before and after the regulatory reforms in 2011. A substantial change is observed after 2011-2012. Such a study on the Indian microfinance sector seems to be new (to the best of the authors’ knowledge).

Financial sustainability in emerging market economies crucially depends on stable foreign capital inflows as these countries lack adequate domestic capital and sophisticated technology. This study attempts to examine the impact of major political risk factors in the emerging market economies along with basic economic fundamentals such as institutional variables like per capita electric consumption, trade openness, and real rate of interest. We have followed a static panel data approach in studying the impact of these crucial variables in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows in 15 major emerging economies for the period 2000–2014. Risk perceptions, i.e., political risk data, have been collected from the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) provided by the Political Risk Services (PRS) Group. In our research purpose, we have considered dependent variable as FDI inflows for 15 emerging countries during the period 2000–2014, which are drawn from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD, 2014, 2015) FDI database. Our results demonstrate that there are six subcomponents of risk perception (political risk) which are statistically significant in explaining variation in FDI inflows of the major emerging countries. The results show that government stability, socioeconomic conditions, religious tension, and bureaucracy quality have a positive impact on FDI inflows of emerging countries, whereas internal conflict and law and order have a negative impact on FDI inflows of these countries. Stable government is more attractive to foreign investors. Again, an improvement in the socioeconomic conditions is positively related with FDI inflows in emerging countries. Decreasing bureaucracy leads to a reduction in corruption, and assists expanding FDI flows in the emerging country.

This paper investigates the selection of semiconductor switches used in contactless power transfer (CPT) system. In the present paper a single phase high frequency full bridge inverter using different semiconductor switches like IGBT, MPOSFET and GTO has been considered. Harmonic injection in input current of the inverter for different semiconductor switches has been analyzed using PSIM software. The THD of input current of the inverter for the particular switching device has been determined by using Fourier Transforms. It has been observed that THD in case of the IGBT is minimised.

Adoption of digital technology at different levels of economic activity is an important indicator of development. Countries are adopting digital technology at business and government levels to increase efficiency and accountability of service delivery to appropriate user groups. Many countries are using digital technology in banking, education, and many other sectors and recasting the relationship among customers, workers, and employers. The digital transformation progressively changes productivity across all sectors and industries. The empirical investigation shows that mainly the role of per capita income (state of living) and supply-side factors explain cross-country variations in Digital Adoption Index (DAI) in business using a static panel data model with fixed effect (FE) approach for 169 countries over the period 2014–2016. In this context, this study makes an attempt to understand the state of digital adoption in business across 169 countries in 2016 using World Bank data. The empirical results state that only major variable like labour force are positively and statistically significant with DAI across the countries. Although there are caveats that the International Monetary Fund has made about the digital economy, they state that we should think carefully about how to devise policies that will allow us to fully exploit the digital revolution’s benefits while minimizing job dislocation.